Olympics 2018: Ex-Wing Chris Chelios gives back to U.S. hockey team

SportsPulse: This is what you should keep an eye on during the first day of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
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Assistant coach Chris Chelios of the Men's USA Ice Hockey Team works practice ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Gangneung Hockey Centre on February 9, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea.(Photo: Bruce Bennett, Getty Images)

It might be hard to find anybody who loves playing for the U.S. more than Chelios. He did so in 10 different international competitions, starting at age 20 and going all the way to age 44. Chelios, who played for the Red Wings from 1999-2011, was a four-time Olympian as a player and was the captain of the 2002 team that won a silver medal at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

And now, he will be an assistant coach for the U.S. men’s hockey team at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

“As a player, every opportunity that I had to play to represent my country, I jumped at it, whether it was World Championships, World Cups, Olympics, Canada Cups,” Chelios said. “Now that I’m retired, I’ve had the opportunity and I’ve been lucky enough to do the same thing to represent my country, whether it is a player or coach. I just look at it as a great privilege. It’s a chance to represent my country and do something really special with a great group of kids.”

Chelios and Granato have a friendship that stretches back to the 1980s when they met during a recruiting visit at Wisconsin.

“Going back to that day, that’s probably the first day we met, was on a recruiting trip,” Chelios said. “Even though we didn’t play together at Wisconsin, there are so similarities between us. Our wives were both born on the same day. We are like closest friends throughout the years, even though he’s a guy I didn’t play on a lot of teams with.”

Granato, a Red Wings assistant in 2014-16, is now the head coach at Wisconsin.

“Chris brings everything you would want in a hockey teammate, a coaching staff, and hockey knowledge,” Granato said. “He’s a warrior. I played with Chris on a couple USA teams. He was at Wisconsin when I was being recruited there. We are great friends ever since. There is nobody that had as much passion for the game than Chris Chelios. His pride, for the American sweater, if we told him we needed him to play, he’d play. And he probably could. He is going to be a huge part of our staff.”

Chelios, who played 26 seasons in the NHL, holds the record for playing the most games by a defenseman in NHL history (1,651).

And he has a deep respect for Granato.

“He’s great,” Chelios said. “The players love him. He’s a player’s coach. He’s fair. He’s just a real honest fair guy. I’ve watched him coach in Sochi (in 2014). I’ve watched him coach, he was part of the team in Vancouver. And I’ve worked with him for two years with the Red Wings, before he left for Wisconsin. He just knows how to speak to people. You talk to him and he’s salt of the earth. The players would go through a wall for him. I know that.”

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From left, Team Canada's Steve Yzerman, Team USA's Chris Chelios and Brett Hull and Team Canada's Brendan Shanahan pose for a picture after Canada defeated USA to win the gold medal in the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.(Photo: David P. Gilkey, Detroit Free Press)

A new generation

Now, for the real bummer about these Olympics: the NHL is not sending its players to these Games.

And Chelios doesn’t understand it one bit.

“To be quite honest, since I played in the Olympics and they talk about growing the game, it makes no sense to me that the NHL guys aren’t there,” Chelios said. “All it came down to was the NHLPA and the NHL owners not coming to an agreement. That’s a business part of the game, and the politics, that’s the only thing I don’t like. That’s life. Everything has become that, even sports.”

Instead of using NHL players, Team USA will be filled with players from colleges as well as pros who play in Europe and in the American Hockey League.

So the fans won’t see the best players in the world.

But on the flip side, the players have an amazing opportunity.

“A year ago, these guys had no idea they would be in the Olympics,” Chelios said. "I couldn’t be happier for this group of guys and their families and how much they are going to appreciate representing their country on such a big stage.”

Five of the players came though the USA Hockey National Team Development program, which used to be based in Ann Arbor but is now in Plymouth.

“It’s helped the development of USA players,” Chelios said. “It’s a great showing of Michigan players.”

Chelios has been building to this moment, too. He was as an assistant coach for the 2016 U.S. Juniors team, which won a bronze medal. And he has worked extensively with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Chelios is familiar with several players on this team because he helped coach them at the Deutschland Cup in November.

"I think we have a great group of guys,” he said. “We just need to win that game that counts and keep going. I wish there were more spots. The hardest part is telling a guy they are one play short of making it. Or one injury from making it. That’s the nature of the beast, the downside of all sports. There’s not enough seats.”

How will this group of unproven players do?

Chelios has no doubt.

“I always go into tournaments, I go into every playoff, I go into every game thinking we could win,” he said. “That’s my mentality and that has to be the mentality of this team, if we are going to have any success. The U.S., 20 years ago, realistically was an underdog. Now, everybody is going to be in the same boat. All of the NHL players are not going to be there. This is something where no one knows what to expect. You can predict stuff. You can call favorites, but that’s why there are upsets. I wouldn’t say we are an underdog. I’d say we are flying under the radar, us and Canada especially because of the advantage the Europeans have. A lot of them are over there playing and a lot of teams are playing together. I think anything is possible.”

Anything is possible?

That’s how you last 26 years in the NHL.

And that’s how you start to transfer all of that knowledge to the next generation of Olympians.

Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel is covering the 2018 Winter Olympics as part of the USA Today Network. Contact him at jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel/.